The Quack Job [1x1]

Lilly took the wipe, "Thanks." She dragged it across her face, pulling away multiple layers of product and revealing deep acne scars. She rubbed at her eyes, even though it left big black marks under them, like she was a racoon. She nodded. "That's good. Is tomorrow going to be busy?"
 
Jesse consulted the scheduling book and wobbled his hand a bit to indicate that it would be sort of busy. "The morning is booked full, but there's only one scheduled reading in the afternoon. Oh! Maybe we can close early tonight." He moved to double check all the curtains were closed shut before beginning to remove the accessories to his costume.
 
Lilly nodded thoughtfully. She rubbed viscously under her eyes until she felt that all the makeup had been removed. She balled the wipe up in her hand and wandered back into the front room where she did the readings. She closed the book at the centre of the table - it was a thousand pages long, hardback, and mysterious looking, but really it was just an old, incredibly boring detective story - and blew out the candles, setting the already murky room into darkness. She walked out, shutting and locking the door behind her. "What're we doing for dinner?" She wondered aloud.
 
Jesse shrugged, wiping at his face now that he was ensured (a second time) that no one would see in. "We could try that new Chinese restaurant down the street or--" He was interrupted by the phone ringing and he was so tempted to just let it go to voicemail, but with a sigh he picked up the receiver. The call was very quick with the customer just wanting to know the rates and if there was an appointment available for the next afternoon. He got a little more information about her (name and phone number, that kind of thing) and then hurried to end the call, turning the ringer off for the night so that it would go straight to voicemail until the next morning. "As I was saying, or pizza sounds great."
 
Lilly sighed at the sound of the phone. It was grating, even more so when you were focusing so hard on giving someone a vague enough 'prophecy' that they could believe it and apply it to their life no matter what. When she retired, she wouldn't have a single phone. Then she'd get a break. She perched on a semi-circular round table that was pressed up against the wall as she waited, her long fingers tracing the knots in the wood as she waited. She lifted her head when she heard him finish up, knowing that she'd have one more lie to tell the next day. "Pizza?" She offered. She slipped off the end table. "I'll need to go get changed no matter what, so." She shrugged.
 
Jesse gave his friend a sympathetic smile. He... understood her reluctance, to an extent, but whether she wanted to believe it or not, she was helping people. Giving them hope, a way to explain the things that happen in their life.

"Pizza sounds good," he agreed, grabbing his bag from beneath the counter. "We can always order it for pick up, grab it and then take it back to my place. There was something I wanted to talk to you about, anyway. About this place. An idea I had?"
 
Lilly turned to go up the stairs, her hand resting on the wooden banister. She hesitated before walking up the stairs, looking over her shoulder at Jesse. "We can talk about it over pizza," she decided. She wanted to get out of the heavy dress before talking about business opportunities. She walked halfway up the stairs, before stopping. "Just a vegetarian for me, please," she said with a slipped on smile. She rushed upstairs as fast as the dress would let her, and a few seconds later a door upstairs closed.
 
Jesse nodded and quickly went to order the pizza so he could pick it up on the way. When they were finally comfortable and fed, Jesse launched into his idea, careful with how it was phrased. He knew that Lilly didn't exactly... enjoy what she did and the both of them just sort of fell into it, but why not make the best of a bad situation?

What he was suggesting, essentially, was adding more to the shop. Sure, they sold a few essential oils and candles to help a person relax, but there were all kinds of books on tarot card reading, interpreting dreams, Wicca books, and other kinds of things like that. People took an interest in that sort of thing, particularly people who went to a psychic for advice. Beside, if they could make more money off of selling some stuff, then maybe Lilly wouldn't have to do as many readings... His only concern was not cheapening the experience for the customers who did go to Lilly.

She didn't exactly give him a straight answer that night, but Jesse was just grateful that she'd heard him out.

....
​
The next day passed quickly for Jesse and it was quickly approaching the last appointment of the day. There was an older man in there with Lilly now, recently divorced Jesse had found out in his research to prep Lilly for the reading. Jesse was behind the register, casually flipping through a magazine when the door opened. The girl who walked in was dressed in a waitress uniform and she was hesitant, gazing around at the inside of the building. Disappointment was clear on her face and Jesse had a feeling she might be trouble. "Can I help you?" He asked, cheerfully and the woman looked up, clearly nervous.

"Oh, um. I have an appointment..." she checked the watch on her wrist, "In about ten minutes." Jesse nodded and beamed. Yes, she would be trouble. He tried to dig up what he could on the girl (on all their clients, so that Lilly wouldn't go in blind) and he had found very little, other than she very recently moved here and lived alone.

"Oh, yes. Of course. She's with a client at the moment, but she'll be wrapped up by your appointment."
 
The client's wedding band was sat on the purple velvet table cloth. Lilly hovered her hand around one foot over it, as if trying to lure information from it. "I'm getting an M, sir, does your ex-wive's name start with an M?" She prompted.
"Yes, her name is Mary!" The man blurted out. Of course, Lilly already knew that. Jesse had told her lots. His ex-wive's name was Mary McCann, she was forty-seven years old, and word on the grape vine was that she'd cut off the marriage after twenty-or-so years because Mary felt she was the breadwinner; which she was.

She didn't need to 'guess' a name, but when she did it always fortified peoples beliefs that she was legitimate. "Now, I'm feeling a bitterness coming from an item linked to this one. I feel that the other item is Mary's wedding band. Was there a fight before your marriage broke, that would make Mary dislike you?" As she spoke, Lilly gently lifted the ring off the table. The weight of the years seemed to be working on it; there was rust on the inside edges, and scratches on the once smooth outside shine.
The girl watched the client's throat jump. "W-well, before we went to file for divorce, I told her..." he trailed off, obviously reluctant to tell the story.
"You don't need to explain," Lilly said, voice long and dreamlike. He'd affirmed what she was guessing at. "She will forgive you in time. But it may be a while. If you are truly dedicated to winning her back, you should work hard at your job. The more you earn, the more she will notice you, and within time-"

By the door, a low-pitched bell rang twice to signify the end of the session. Lilly smiled, forgetting that the man couldn't see her. "Thank you very much for coming. I do wish you the best."

She returned his ring to him and stayed in her seat to watch him leave. When the door closed, she knew that there would be five minutes until Jesse let the next client in. She lifted the velvet cover to reveal a drawer, and pulled it open. From inside there was a slip of paper with all the details of the girl that would be coming in next. It was...uncomfortably empty. She closed the drawer slowly, knowing that she would have to mostly wing it, and waited for the door to open.

Olive walked in at the same time as the man was leaving. She'd taken a milkshake to go, knowing that she'd be stuck out in the foyer for some time. She threw herself down on the plush couch. "You know this is bullshit, right Sydney?" She said loudly. She glared at the boy behind the reception with enough power to kill a small animal. She hadn't been happy that her best friend had decided to visit, but she knew that she wanted to be there. To pull up any bullshit that the fake bitch planted in her head.
 
Jesse kept a perfect customer service smile in place as the woman glared at him. There were lots of people like her and it only phased him a little now. James waited, typing away at his computer while the five minutes passed. There wasn't a lot of information to read up on the girl, but he didn't want to surprise Lilly by throwing the girl in early.

Sydney gave her friend a hard look. She certainly wouldn't be able to tell Olive about her own ability if this is how she felt about all psychics. "It certainly can't hurt." She retorted with a shrug. "I promise to take it all with a grain of salt, but..." she shrugged. How could she explain that she was looking to find someone like her?

"This way," Jesse interrupted, leading Syndey to the door. He turned to look at Olive over his shoulder. "I'm sorry, but you and your negative energy will have to wait out here." Hopefully Lilly heard that much as it would give a smidge more to work with, though not much. He pulled aside the curtain and opened the door, gesturing for Sydney to go inside.

There was a note of hesitation in her step, but the waitress did step inside, glancing around warily. Once again she was disappointed with the over-the-top decor, but she assumed people had their expectations. Spotting the psychic, Sydney offered a shy smile.
 
"It'll hurt your wallet, that's what," Olive grumbled, flippantly ignoring the receptionist's polite front. She threw her feet up onto the arm of the couch. She could usually be pretty polite, but that went out the window when faced with the people that scammed her. She pulled her phone out of her pocket, ready to just scroll through Instagram for the next half hour, until the receptionist gave her that barely-concealed petty remark. She fired another glare. "Don't want to be anywhere near that room anyway," she grumbled.

Lilly sat upright in her chair, hands folded on the table. She smiled underneath her veil. "Welcome," she said softly. She gestured to the chair across from her. "Please, sit down." She examined the woman closely. She was wearing a waitresses uniform. She may have been visiting about her work, wondering if she was going to get out of her job. Or, since she lived alone, maybe she was wanting to know if she would find love in the future. The girl didn't look anxious, or excited, as a lot of clients did. She just looked cautious, a little let down, maybe.
 
Sydney shot her friend a look. She could at least be polite, even if she wasn't on board with the whole thing. She should have asked Ruby to come with her, but Olive was her best friend.

Perhaps it helped having the cynic around; it would prevent Sydney from getting her hopes up, at the very least.

Offering the psychic a shy smile, Sydney took the proffered seat, fiddling with her hands nervously. Perhaps this wasn't such a good idea after all. But she was already here. "Thanks." She murmured, eyes skimming the contents of all the room, the over done draperies and dimmed lighting. Maybe Olive was right.

After gesturing Sydney into the room and firmly shutting the door behind her, Jesse returned to his place behind the desk where he sniffed airily at the skeptic and turned to his computer, intent on ignoring her. He simply wouldn't give her the satisfaction.
 
Now, Lilly would usually start the session straight away, already knowing what someone was there for. However, since she only had faint ideas of what this girl could possibly be there for, she would just have to ask. She was new in town, so hopefully she wouldn't have heard how the sessions normally turned out. "Is there anything particular you're seeking guidance on today? I can give you a specific reading, or something more general for your life."

Olive had told Sydney every detail of her meeting with the psychic. If Sydney was really going through with it, Olive wanted her to go in knowing what to expect, at least. She let the room be quiet for a moment, before taking a loud gulp of her drink. "Don't you want, like, a real job? Instead of scamming hard working folk?" She grumbled, not seeming to care if the receptionist replied or not.
 
Sydney looked at the psychic with a bit of surprise, but she shrugged. It wasn't an exact science and she couldn't predict everything. Still, her unease grew a little and she looked around the room before her eyes fell back on the psychic. "Specific. I'm... I'd like to meet my mom." Maybe she was testing the psychic, by being vague and not specifying how much she already knows about the woman. But Olive had planted doubts and Sydney was desperate to find someone like her.

In the reception room, Jesse typed passive-aggressively at his computer, pointedly ignoring Olive and her comments. Click, clack, click, click. He paused. "We help people, which is more than I can say about your negative attitude. You came in support of your friend, but you clearly don't want to be here. Now, what kind of supportive friend is that?" Then he resumed clicking away at his keyboard.
 
Lilly nodded, eyes shut. She needed more information before she could say anything, so she tried to drag it out with the item card. "Do you have any item that is connected to her? An heirloom, or even something so simple as a pen?" Lilly had long ago developed a slow talking pace, which dragged time out and gave her time to think. She spoke with her hands also, clasping them at the end of every sentence.

Olive screwed her face up in frustration and annoyance. How was this jackass criticising her about anything! He was just a scammer! "I'm here to clean up the mess you're going to make!" To keep her temper under wraps, she was keeping her voice low and deep. "You're just going to give her false hope. I'm the one that's going to bring her back down to earth!"
 
Sydney studied the psychic, with her eyes closed, the request for an item. It had never really worked that way for Sydney; she just... got visions, sometimes when she made contact with a person they appeared, but never from items. She was beginning to wonder if maybe Olive was right.

Except, maybe it worked differently for this woman... Sydney shrugged, apologetically. "No, nothing."

Jesse grumped at their client's so-called friend. "False hope? You assume that all fortunes are good news. And if she does come out feeling good about herself and her problems, you're going to be the one to ruin that mood? Right. Some friend."
 
Lilly frowned deeply, her face settling into developing wrinkles. Was the waitress unfamiliar with her mother, or just unprepared? The stress was already settling in. This would certainly be a difficult session, so the trick was to speak long and speak vague. "Unfortunate. I can't speak for the clarity of my premonitions without a link, but I will do my best." Her feelings didn't show through her voice; she simply sounded mildly inconvenienced, and apologetic to Sydney. The table was clear, pardon the two candles at both the left and right sides, so Lilly let her hands fall across the table cloth, palms up. "Your hands, please?"

Olive sat the to-go milkshake cup on the floor, and folded her arms across her chest like a scolded child. "I'm not going to ruin it. I'm just going to make sure that she's not too hopeful. I know that what you guys say is guesses." She kicked her legs at the arm of the couch. "And that 'not all fortunes are good' stuff is bullshit. Everyone I speak to gets good ones! I did - you guys only problem with me is that I had the brains to look past the little good stuff and at the big bad stuff."
 
Lily nodded and quietly obeyed, stretching her arms out across the table, palms down and then she lay them on the hands of the Psychic. Instantly her brain filled with sounds and images...

The psychic was coming out of the room they were in now, staring after the door in a mixture of what looked like surprise and frustration. "We're closing early," She told the boy at the counter. He looked confused and started to argue but upon looking at his boss's face he went ahead and locked up the building, and then bent to grab a package of make-up wipes that had fallen to the floor, pulling one out and handing it to the Psychic. She began wiping at her face.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"No."

He nodded and started wiping at his own face. "Chinese for dinner?" A look of determination filled the psychic's face and she nodded.

The images swirled into another one. They were in a bathroom and there was a curly red-haired woman puking her guts out in the toilet moaning "She knew. She knew this would happen."

A man hovered behind her, anxiously. "What are you talking about, Lilly?" They were the same people from the psychic shop, only they looked normal.

"She knew it was fake and she knew I'd be sitting here puking into my toilet."

Sydney wrenched her hands away from the psychic's, anger filling her features. "You're a fraud!" She snapped, horrified and... somehow a little hurt. "You're not a real psychic. You rob people of their hard earned money, pretending to be able to see the future. Well, guess what. I saw your future and I hope you enjoy your evening." She stood, grabbing her coat. "I'd grab some Gatorade and saltine crackers because I'm betting you're not going to be able to keep anything down for a few days."

Without waiting for another word from the fraud, she stormed out of the room. On a whim she darted behind the counter, ignoring the indignant 'hey!' and grabbed the wipes. "Hrmph." She growled, throwing them onto the floor and heading for the door. "Come on, Olive. Let's go." She didn't even wait for her friend, storming out without another look back.

Jesse stared blankly as the door fell closed. What in the world had just happened?
 
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Before Lilly could even start to think about what to say, the waitress had snatched her hands away. On impulse, Lilly's hands flew away from her table and flitted around her veil, clutching it tightly as if making sure that it was secure. When the woman went to leave, Lilly finally came about herself and stood, though she was too late to do anything to try and calm the woman down. She heard the door slam, and that's when she finally came to the door.

She stood in the doorframe for a moment, before she crumpled into confusion. The woman had said something about...seeing her future. That was a first. No one, no matter how angry or malicious they were, ever tried to spin it back on her. She bit her lip. There was always the possibility that she was telling the truth, but Lilly put that thought right away. All 'psychics' were fake, just like herself.

She turned to Jesse, frustrated with herself for even amusing such a thought. "We're closing early," she said, her voice quiet but domineering.

Olive watched Sydney burst from the room. The temper was impressive, a tantrum that anyone would have been proud to have, and Olive was just glad that she'd obviously seen through the act. She jumped up, grinned at Jesse (though she would realise later that they had already won; they still had Sydney's money) before striding widely out of the house.

The waitress jumped into the car, putting her milkshake in the cup holder. "What happened, girl? You got out of there quick. Not that I'm complaining, I'm glad you didn't let yourself fall down that rabbit hole, but still, she must have done something serious to piss you off!"
 
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He should have known they would be trouble when she'd come in with her negative, bit---cranky friend. He was confused as to why they would close early just because of one angry client. He looked from the door to Lilly, opening his mouth to argue but upon seeing her face and seeing the look there, he nodded. Without a word he went to lock up the building and then he bent to grab the make-up wipes that the girl had thrown to the ground.

He pulled one out, handing it over to Lilly and then grabbed one for himself. "Do you want to talk about it?"

...

Outside, Sydney was fuming. She considered the thought that she shouldn't necessarily be driving when this angry, but it didn't stop her from throwing the car in reverse, backing out of the spot, and throwing the car into drive. "If I told you, I don't think you'd believe me." She muttered, angry.

She was angry at herself. She was angry at the damn psychic. "And honestly, I'm too mad to have you not believe me right now."
 
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